During our season of Lent sermon series, we have been focusing on the different fears we face along our journey of faith. We have looked at the fear of temptation, doubts, fruitfulness, forgiveness, generosity, and confidence.
The title of this series is “My Fears Relieved,” which is the beautiful little phrase that we find in verse two of the hymn, “Amazing Grace.”
My fears relieved. During this series, we have been discovering again and again that one one of the ways that we can overcome our fears is by keeping our focus on Jesus.
Jesus helps us overcome our fear of temptation because we saw how he faced his own temptations when he was in the wilderness at the beginning of his ministry.
Jesus helps us overcome our fear of doubts by trusting him even though many of our questions about faith and life have no simple answers.
Jesus helps us overcome our fear of fruitfulness by inviting us to spend more time following him everyday and less time worrying about things that we out of our control.
Jesus helps us overcome our fear of forgiveness by praying for those who have wronged us.
Jesus helps us to overcome our fear of generosity by pointing us to the cross where he poured out his life for the sake of the world.
And this past Sunday, we saw how Jesus helps us to overcome the fear of confidence by giving each one of us a purpose in life and remembering that God is always with us.
All of these fears are relieved when we keep our focus on Jesus and become more like him. This is the common theme throughout our season of Lent. Keeping our focus on Jesus can make all the difference in the world.
And tonight, the disciple Peter teaches us in only the way that he can, what it means to overcome our fear of serving.
Peter refuses to allow Jesus to wash his feet. And we can understand why. By washing the disciples’ feet, Jesus was committing a 1st century Middle East faux passé because only servants were supposed to wash feet.
Washing feet was a necessary thing to do during that time because it wasn’t like everyone had a pair of sketcher hiking shoes during their long travels. Having your feet washed was a very common and necessary thing for people entering into a home.
And here, their teacher, their Rabbi, and indeed, the one who they knew to be their Messiah was doing something that seemed to be so un-Messiah like. He was stooping down to gently and lovingly wash “their” feet.
Peter is still in shock over this whole foot washing scene and when it is finally Peter’s turn, Peter does only what Peter knows how to do. Instead of silence, he speaks. Sometimes, silence is an appropriate response in times like this. But Peter can’t control himself.
In our bibles, Peter’s response comes out like a coherent and complete sentence, but the original Greek is very abrupt and choppy. A better translation would read, “You?... You wash…my feet?”
Peter was in shock that Jesus, would do such a thing. And Jesus proceeds to wash Peter’s feet.
In this quiet, but powerful and countercultural act, Jesus was turning the disciples’ preconceived notions of who the Messiah should be and what religion should be, upside down. Without using words, Jesus was showing the disciples what it means to be His followers.
Think about what Jesus’ does in this loving action. John tells us that after Jesus got up from the table, he took off his outer robe, and tied a towel around himself. The next time that we will read about Jesus’ clothing will be six chapters later when Jesus appears before Pontius Pilate wearing a crown of thorns and a purple robe.
And soon after that, Jesus will be stripped naked and will die on a cross showing us once again, how far he is willing to go to redeem us and claim us as his own. No wonder Peter found it difficult to allow Jesus to serve him by washing his feet.
God’s love goes beyond our comprehension. It even shocks us, and when we come face to face with it, we often have trouble receiving it. That’s why we can never exhaust the deep meaning of Holy Week. No matter how many times we read these scripture lessons, God’s love is revealed to us in new and fresh ways, surprising us, and calling us to receive it again and again.
In my years of pastoral ministry, I have discovered that many of us, me included, find it difficult to receive God’s gift of love. In our thinking, we need to do something to earn God’s love. But it just doesn’t work that way with God. God loves us right where we are.
What if, on this night, instead of trying to earn God’s love or favor, we instead receive God’s love? What if on this night, we allow God to stoop to wash our feet? What if on this night, we allow the Son of God to serve us even though not one of us really deserves it.
Will Willimon, who now serves as a Bishop in our denomination tells of a friend of his, Stuart Henry, who grew up in a very strict southern Presbyterian church. Whenever they would serve the Sacrament of Holy Communion, the pastor would stand before the congregation and say something like, “It is my sacred and solemn duty to warn you that if there be any adulterers, fornicators, liars, thieves, or blasphemers among you, and that if you partake of this holy food unworthily, you partake of your own damnation.
Dr. Henry said, “We all pranced right down to the front to receive the body and blood of Christ anyway.”
And tonight, here we are. We can relate to Judas and Peter, for we know about betrayal and denial all too well. And yet, John tells us that Jesus washed their feet.
A friend of mine shared with me how he became a Christian. While he was in college, a friend of his invited him to a worship service at a United Methodist church.
And during the worship service, the lay reader read this very same scripture from John’s Gospel – the story of Jesus washing the disciples’ feet. And my friend said, “For the rest of that week, I couldn’t stop thinking about that scripture reading. I couldn’t get that image of Jesus out of my mind. Jesus washed the disciples’ feet.”
“The reason why I’m a Christian today,” he went on to tell me, “Is because I went to church on a Maundy Thursday and was amazed by this story.”
This friend of mine is one of the most serving people I know. He loves to be part of a prayer walking group in his church who will periodically walk through their city neighborhoods and serve the people they meet in simple ways.
Since their church is located in a very poverty stricken part of the city, they will hand out gift bags that contain hygiene items and other practical gifts. He has been part of a team in his church who have started a small group in one of the neighborhoods.
Jeff is serving in all of these ways all because during a Maundy Thursday service one year, someone read to him this story about Jesus washing the disciples’ feet. Jesus helps us overcome our fear of serving by first serving us in such a humble way.
A bowl and a basin are powerful images for us to reflect on tonight. Think about it.
Jesus washed their feet.
Jesus washed their feet.
Jesus serving us.
Jesus serving us.
Jesus washing our feet.
(Pastor sits down while continuing these lines.)
Jesus washing our feet.
Jesus washing our feet.
Jesus dying on the cross for us.
Jesus dying on the cross for us.
Jesus dying on the cross for us.
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